


A Hand to Hold

by spikewriter



Series: Rose Tyler, Defender of the Earth and Her Faithful Companion, the Doctor (Oi!) [4]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-19
Updated: 2011-01-19
Packaged: 2017-10-15 03:48:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/156730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spikewriter/pseuds/spikewriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>From the moment they met, he held her hand.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Hand to Hold

**Author's Note:**

> Written for mrv3000's prompt for lyssie's Hand-Kissing Promptathon. The prompt was _"Doctor Who, Doctor/Rose, any incarnation and any circumstance."_

From the moment they met, he held her hand. A strong grip enclosing her fingers, the urgent word "Run!" and they were off. He held it again as he told her about the turn of the Earth and she could feel the movement in his words and his touch. Looking back, Rose realized her decision to go with him had been made as they reached for one another's hand while racing across Westminster Bridge, even if he had to ask her a second time. (Wasn't she glad he came back? How different her life would have been if he hadn't.)

No matter how many worlds they visited and how many dangers, there was always one constant: her hand in his. He took her hand to give her comfort, to guide her way — and sometimes to jerk her along if he was annoyed. There were other hands to hold, though Jack had a bad habit of not being satisfied with just a hand at the most inopportune moments. But it always came back to her hand in the Doctor's.

Then came the day he changed, big ears replaced with big brown eyes, the grin still broad but different, a mop of hair instead of the close cut she was used to. She didn't want to believe her Doctor was gone, replaced in a pillar of flame by this new man. But he took her hand in his, looked deep into her eyes, reminded her of the moment they had met and she knew. (Took her a while to get used to the idea it really was him, but she couldn’t deny what her senses told her.)

They kept running, always her hand in his. Sometimes she wanted to smack him for being such a guy. Yes, he was an alien, but one thing she learned in her travels was that guys were guys the universe over. Most of the time, she loved being with him and when he wrapped her in one of his big, warm, wonderful hugs, she wished he would never let her go.

Turned out the universe wasn’t in the mood to grant her wish and she couldn’t forget the look of horror on his face, his hand outstretched toward hers as she fell. She was caught, but not by him and her landing wasn’t where she wanted to be, trapped in another universe where he couldn’t follow. (She didn’t want to believe it when he said “impossible” but the sadness in his eyes warned this time it might be true. Didn’t stop her from hoping. Or trying.)

She didn’t find her way back to him until the stars began to disappear, lights winking out all over the night sky. Only then could she could walk the worlds, trying to find the right one. But this time she was on her own and she realized how lonely he must have been each time he didn’t have a hand to hold and why he surrounded himself with people.

Their reunion was in the middle of carnage, a pause in the latest crisis that threatened to destroy the earth, the universe, reality itself. But their luck ran out this time or was on the Daleks’ side and as she clasped his hand in hers as he lay on the floor of the TARDIS control room, she wondered how fate could be so cruel to make him change again so soon. (Would his hand feel the same in hers this time — or would he reach for someone else instead?)

But he didn't change and she didn't stop to think why as they were faced with Davros and the rantings of Dalek Caan. It was only when the new man stepped out, so familiar yet oh so different, that she realized something had happened which wasn't supposed to happen. But between them, they saved the universe and for once the TARDIS, usually so large, seemed joyfully crowded as they made their way back home.

In the cheerful chaos that followed, she couldn't resist the chance to talk to this new Doctor with the same brown eyes and wild hair. She quickly noticed little differences; his grin was broader and he seemed to laugh more easily, as if the weight of the universe did not hang quite so heavily upon him. Even so, she wasn't prepared to find herself standing on the beach once more as her Doctor disappeared and this strange new one grasped her hand in his. (His touch was warm now, confusing her. It felt the same — but it didn't.)

"He needs you," the Doctor had said, but Rose wasn't certain she needed _him_. Changing a face was one thing; splitting in two was just...weird. No, that was alien; weird was watching him bond with Mum over reality shows. And yet, her hand still found his on a regular basis, which always provoked that smile which made her forget for a moment he had one heart instead of two and there'd never again be that flame and a change. One heart, one life, one world.

Surprisingly quickly, they began to rub along as they had before, Shiver and Shake tracking down aliens and keeping the world safe. But as time passed and she grew more used to his differences, she couldn’t help feeling they were somehow holding their breath, not moving backwards, but not moving forward either. (She’d grown used to the warmth of his hand but that didn’t feel as if it was enough — and not for the reasons she would have said that awful day on the beach.)

They were at some dreadfully boring charity event, both roped in at the last minute to fill empty places at the table Pete had bought and given strict instructions to behave. Mum only had to glare at them twice for giggling during the speeches, though the way the Doctor was rolling his eyes, Rose expected a third time very soon.

The giggles died in her throat as his gaze slid over her, the shop girl from the Powell Estate dressed to the nines in a designer dress that wasn’t borrowed feathers but something pulled from her closet without a second thought. He wasn’t the only one who was different, she realized. All of time and space had changed her from what he’d known — what the other Doctor had known. Lifting her hand from the table, his eyes never leaving hers, he pressed a kiss against her skin. One path of exploring the universe was done, she realized, but in their differences, a new one was just beginning. (She could almost forgive the mad scientist who decided to crash the party — almost. After all, she had the Doctor’s hand to hold while they saved the day.)


End file.
